Michael Dewayne Smith: The Oklahoma City Gang Murders
Overview
Michael Dewayne Smith was an Oklahoma City gang member whose misguided quest for vengeance led to a series of brutal murders in 2001 and 2002. A member of the Oak Grove Posse, a subset of the Crips, Smith's crimes were fueled by a distorted sense of loyalty and retaliation. Already a fugitive for a gang-related murder committed in late 2001, Smith embarked on a violent spree on February 22, 2002, killing two innocent people in separate incidents just hours apart. He mistakenly targeted both victims, believing one was related to a police informant and the other had disrespected a fallen gang member.
His violent rampage ended with his arrest two days later. Smith confessed to the two murders, providing a detailed and chilling account to detectives. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. A subsequent trial found him guilty of second-degree murder for his earlier crime, adding a life sentence to his judgment. For more than two decades, Smith fought his conviction from death row, filing numerous appeals that were consistently denied. After a final plea for clemency failed, Michael Dewayne Smith was executed by lethal injection on April 4, 2024, bringing a final, somber close to a case marked by senseless violence.
Early Life and Gang Affiliation
Michael Dewayne Smith was born in Oklahoma on June 24, 1982. Growing up in Oklahoma City, he became deeply involved in street gang culture. He joined the Oak Grove Posse, a local affiliate of the notorious Crips gang. Within this world, loyalty was paramount, and violence was a common currency for respect and retribution. Smith's life became intertwined with the gang's activities, and his allegiance would ultimately set the stage for his deadly actions.
A pivotal event in Smith's life was the death of fellow gang member Teron "T-Nok" Armstrong in November 2000. Armstrong was shot and killed during a botched robbery at Tran's Food Mart in south Oklahoma City. This loss deeply affected Smith and other members of the Oak Grove Posse, planting a seed of vengeance that would tragically bloom more than a year later. Smith’s identity was so enmeshed with the gang that his actions were not just his own, but extensions of the gang’s code of honor and retaliation.
The Murder of Otis Payne Jr.
Before the double homicide that would seal his fate, Michael Dewayne Smith was already wanted for murder. On the night of November 24, 2001, Smith and another man, David Burns, were involved in the killing of 26-year-old Otis Payne Jr. at a car wash in Oklahoma City. The motive for this murder was rooted in gang rivalry.
Smith became a fugitive, managing to evade law enforcement for three months. It was during this time, while on the run, that he would commit the two murders that led to his death sentence. After his capture and conviction for the 2002 killings, the state brought him to trial for his role in Payne's death. In March 2004, an Oklahoma County jury found Smith guilty of second-degree murder. He received a sentence of life in prison, ordered to be served consecutively with his two death sentences. His accomplice, David Burns, was also convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years.
The Murders of Janet Moore and Sharath Pulluru
On February 22, 2002, Smith's simmering rage and paranoia boiled over into a day of shocking violence. His actions were driven by two separate, and entirely false, beliefs.
His first target was a man named Phillip Zachary, whom Smith incorrectly believed had acted as a police informant, providing information that led to a newspaper article about the Oak Grove Posse. Bent on revenge, Smith went to Zachary's apartment. However, Zachary was not home. Instead, Smith encountered his mother, Janet Miller Moore, a 41-year-old woman getting ready for her job at the OU Medical Center. According to Smith's later confession, when he confronted her, she panicked and screamed. In that moment, Smith shot her nine times, killing her in her own home. Before fleeing, he attempted to cover his tracks by wiping down surfaces to remove fingerprints.
Hours later, Smith's focus shifted to avenging the death of his friend Teron Armstrong. He believed a clerk at a local convenience store had spoken disrespectfully about Armstrong to a newspaper reporter. He went to the A&Z Food Mart, which was located next to the store where Armstrong had been killed over a year earlier. The clerk on duty that day was 22-year-old Sharath Babu Pulluru.
Pulluru was an international student from India, studying engineering and working part-time to support himself. He was a kind and bright young man with no connection to Smith, his gang, or any newspaper stories. He was simply filling in for a friend at the store that day. Smith, armed with two handguns—a .357 and a .45-caliber—confronted Pulluru. He shot the young clerk multiple times, killing him behind the counter. Smith then stole money from the register, grabbed a container of lighter fluid from a shelf, and doused Pulluru's body and the surrounding area. He set the store on fire in a brutal attempt to destroy all evidence of his crime.
The Victims
- Otis Payne Jr., 26 — November 24, 2001, Oklahoma City. Killed in a gang-related shooting, little public information is available about his life.
- Janet Miller Moore, 41 — February 22, 2002, Oklahoma City. A loving mother, she was murdered in her apartment while preparing for her workday in the insurance division at OU Medical Center. She was killed simply because she was home when Smith came looking for her son.
- Sharath Babu Pulluru, 22 — February 22, 2002, Oklahoma City. An ambitious and kind-hearted engineering student from Andhra Pradesh, India, he was pursuing his education in the United States. His family described him as the "life of our family" and a "loving son, brother, and uncle." He was working an extra shift for a friend at a convenience store when he was senselessly murdered in a case of mistaken identity.
Investigation and Capture
The violent crime spree on February 22 triggered an intense investigation. The Oklahoma City Police Department quickly connected the two homicides. Smith, already a person of interest in the Otis Payne Jr. murder from 2001, became a prime suspect.
On February 24, 2002, just two days after the murders of Moore and Pulluru, authorities located and arrested Michael Dewayne Smith. He was taken into custody and interrogated by police detectives. Initially, Smith denied any involvement. However, as the interview progressed, his story began to crumble. He ultimately provided a full, videotaped confession to both murders.
In the confession, Smith laid out his motives with chilling clarity. He explained that he killed Janet Moore because she "panicked" when he confronted her while searching for her son. He stated he killed Sharath Pulluru as retribution for perceived disrespect toward his deceased friend, Teron Armstrong, telling detectives he was seeking revenge for his "set" and his "family." This confession, along with testimony from an acquaintance named Sheena Johnson to whom Smith had also admitted the killings, formed the cornerstone of the prosecution's case.
Trial and Sentence
Michael Smith's first trial, held in June 2003, was declared a mistrial due to a procedural error involving the jury. A second trial commenced on August 28, 2003, in Oklahoma County District Court.
The prosecution's case was built around Smith's own words. They played the videotaped confession for the jury, allowing them to hear Smith describe the killings in his own voice. Prosecutors detailed the brutal nature of the crimes: how he had executed Janet Moore in her home and then, hours later, murdered and burned Sharath Pulluru in a robbery. The state argued that the murders were premeditated acts of vengeance and that Smith's attempt to destroy evidence by setting the convenience store on fire demonstrated his cold-blooded state of mind.
On September 11, 2003, the jury returned its verdict, finding Smith guilty on all counts: two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Moore and Pulluru, first-degree burglary, robbery with a firearm, and first-degree arson.
During the sentencing phase, the prosecution argued for the death penalty, citing the aggravating circumstances of the crimes, including that Smith knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person and that the murders were especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel. On September 20, the jury recommended two death sentences, one for each murder. They also recommended an additional 85 years in prison for the other convictions. On October 14, 2003, Judge Twyla Mason Gray formally imposed the sentences recommended by the jury.
Appeals and Execution
Following his conviction, Michael Dewayne Smith was sent to death row at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. For the next two decades, he pursued a series of appeals in state and federal courts. His legal team raised several arguments in an attempt to overturn his conviction or sentence. They claimed his confession was coerced and made while he was under the influence of PCP, rendering it involuntary. They also argued that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel during his trial and that he was intellectually disabled, which would make him ineligible for execution under the U.S. Constitution.
However, court after court rejected these claims. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and federal courts found that his confession was voluntary and that his trial counsel had been effective. Regarding the intellectual disability claim, his IQ scores were consistently above the threshold typically used to define such a disability, and the courts found no grounds to overturn his sentence on that basis.
In March 2024, with his execution date looming, Smith appeared before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board for a clemency hearing. In a dramatic shift, he recanted his confession and claimed innocence. He told the board he was high on drugs at the time and had no memory of the crimes or his confession, suggesting he was not responsible. "I didn't commit these crimes. I didn't kill these people," he stated. Despite his plea and expressions of "deepest sorrows" to the victims' families, the board was not swayed. They voted 4-1 to deny clemency, paving the way for his execution to proceed. His final appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court were denied just hours before the scheduled execution.
On the morning of April 4, 2024, Michael Dewayne Smith was put to death by lethal injection. He declined a traditional last meal. When asked for his final words, he simply said, "Nah, I'm good." He was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m.
Aftermath and Legacy
The execution of Michael Dewayne Smith was the first carried out by the state of Oklahoma in 2024. It marked the 12th execution since the state resumed capital punishment in 2021 following a nearly seven-year moratorium prompted by a series of flawed and problematic lethal injections.
For the families of the victims, the execution brought a sense of finality and justice after 22 years of legal battles. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond released a statement saying, "Justice has been served. Michael Smith’s senseless crimes devastated the families of Janet Moore and Sharath Pulluru, and I pray that today brings some measure of peace for them."
The family of Sharath Pulluru also issued a statement, remembering him as the "life of our family" and expressing their gratitude that justice was finally served. Janet Moore's son, Phillip Zachary Jr., witnessed the execution, finding a difficult closure to the tragedy that had taken his mother's life. The case stands as a stark reminder of the destructive power of gang violence and the devastating, far-reaching consequences of acts born from mistaken identity and misplaced revenge.
